Page 405 - Gear Technology Solutions

The third step of the inventive cutter consolidation applies the virtual cutter
head to all jobs of the consolidation variety and calculates new machine set-
tings for each job which assures the correct tooth thickness, and a minimized
pressure angle deviation compared to the original job and considering the in-
terplay between pinion and gear.

A simplified explanation of the slot width correction principle is given in Figure
5. The master blade is drawn in a principal sketch as a trapezoid. The profile of
job 1 is identical to the master profile which results in an axial correction
amount of zero. The trapezoidal profile of job 2 is narrower and the master pro-
file has to withdraw by the axial correction amount shown which makes the
depth of the consolidated job 2 shallower. In the case of job 3, the profile is
wider which requires the master profile to advance in order to match the cor-
rect width. The result is the axial correction amount which makes the consoli-
dated profile deeper.

Figure 5: Slot width correction principle

A flow chart which contains the three consolidation steps discussed above is
shown in Figure 6. In the first step the most suitable job for the consolidation is
selected as temporary master out of the consolidation job variety. In the sec-
ond set the information about all jobs and their interrelation to the temporary
master, gained during the first step, is used to calculate an optimal virtual mas-
ter which allows minimizing all individual deviations which occur if each of the
jobs would be manufactured with the master cutter. Of course, the virtual cutter
becomes a real master cutter after the consolidation procedure. It was chosen
to call it virtual master because it is different than all cutters of the consolida-

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